USA > Illinois > Warren County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Warren County, Volume II > Part 56
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SEARLES, J. F .- Natives of Ohio who came to Illinois during the early development
proved themselves worthy pioneers and have assisted ably in the progress of work down to the present time. One of the best known na- tive Ohioans in Warren County, is J. F. Searles, of Monmouth, who, as a laundry proprietor and otherwise has been a success- ful business man for years. Mr. Searles was born in Seneca County, Ohio, December 14, 1846, a son of David Young and Eliza (Schuyler) Searles. His father was born June 2, 1817, three miles east of Lancaster,
Ohio, and his mother a native of Seneca County, New York, was born November 22, 1819. John Searles, his grandfather, was born in Ann Arundel County, Md., February 20, 1775, and married Jane Duncan, who was born at Duncan Island, near Harrisburg, Penn., March 26, 1780. John Schuyler, his mother's father, was born in New York in 1783, and married Eliza C. Turner, a native of Mary- land, born March 13, 1799. His great-grand- father in the maternal line was Aaron Schuy- ler, who married Ann Wright, they were both natives of New York. Aaron Schuyler was a son of Arent Schuyler, who was born in New York in 1662 and married Janette Teller, No- vember 26, 1684. J. F. Searles was educated in Fostoria, Ohio, and, in 1866, came to Illinois and for three years worked at the tinner's trade at Egypt. After that he worked as a tinner in Chicago for three months and, in 1870, located in Monmouth, where he was em- ployed as foreman in the tin shop of Mr. Hardin and that of his successor, Mr. Churchill. In 1872 he returned to Chicago, where he remained until 1881, when he lo- cated permanently at Monmouth. He establish- ed his steam laundry June 1, 1886, and has managed it with increasing success until the present time. He is a man of much public spirit and has been interested in several local enterprises. He is one of the organizers of the Homestead and Loan Association, of Mon- mouth, in which for eight years he has been director, and holds the office as steward in the Methodist Episcopal church of Monmouth, to which he was first elected in 1886. Politically he is a Republican. Mr. Searles married Effie Blackburn, of Monmouth, June 5, 1873, and has a daughter named Minnie Gertrude, who is a musician of more than local note. She was a student of Wm. Sherwood in her piano work. I. V. Flagler and Harrison Wild instructed her on pipe organ. She is organist at the First M.
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E. church, Monmouth, Ill., which position she has held for four years.
SECRIST, CALVIN C .; lawyer and court re- porter; Monmouth; is well known as a legal practitioner, a Mason, a Presbyterian, a Re- publican, a veteran of the Civil war and an influential and progressive citizen. He was born in Henderson County, Ill., September 24, 1845, a son of Michael and Maria B. (Craig) Secrist, a few months after his parents, who had come from Pennyivania, had located there and engaged in farming. In February, 1861, Mr. and Mrs. Secrist removed to Mon- mouth, Ill., where he died April 7, 1867, she dying October 28, 1881. They were the par- ents of five children: Alonzo, who died in Henderson County, in 1859; Theodore F., who enlisted in Company D, Thirteenth Illinois Cavalry, January 4, 1862, and died in October following at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis; Mrs. Victoria Cole, who died in Burlington, Iowa, 1879; Calvin C., and one who died in infancy. Calvin C. Secrist entered Monmouth College in 1861 and was a student there until May 2, 1864, when he enlisted in Company A, One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Regiment Illi- nois Volunteer Infantry, for a term of one hun- dred days. He was mustered into service in Camp Wood, Quincy, Ill., and did garrison work in Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee, in the performance of which he was involved in several sharp skirmishes. He received an honorable discharge from the service at .Spring- field, Ill., October 14, 1864, and re-entered Mon- mouth College, from which institution he graduated with the class of 1867 with the de- gree of B. A. He then took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in 1872 and has since won distinction as a legal practi- tioner and court reporter, having officially been reporter of the courts of Warren County for ten years. He married at Monmouth, June, 1883, Carrie S. Samson, who was born in Monmouth, a daughter of George A. and Hannah M. (Ellis) Samson. Mr. Samson was born in Kent, England, January 21, 1823, and early in life learned the carpenter's and the cabinet maker's trades. When he was sixteen years old he located in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became an active member of the Methodist church and there married Miss Ellis, Novem- ber 7, 1846. Mrs. Samson was born in Union- town, Penn., but was reared in Cincinnati. In
May, 1854, they removed to Davenport, Iowa, and thence, in 1856, to Monmouth, where Mr. Samson was a cabinet maker, a contractor and builder, and for several years a manufacturer of school furniture. Of an inventive turn of mind, he made the first curved-back school seat and prepared an unequaled liquid slating for blackboards. He was especially prominent as an Odd-Fellow and was a member of the Fidelity Lodge, Cincinnati, Ohio, later affiliated with Warren Lodge No. 160, was a represent- ative to the Grand Lodge in 1868-09, and a charter member of the Hiawatha Encampment in 1887. He became popular throughout the County and State, and his death, August 9, 1891, which resulted from paralysis, was widely regretted. Mr. and Mrs. Secrist are the parents of five children: Frank M., George A., Calvin C., Jr., John B. and Carrie May.
SHIELDS, CAPTAIN W. W .; blacksmith and horseshoer; Monmouth; is one of the best known military men in his part of the State, and is a citizen of prominence and influence. He was born near Youngstown, Ohio, in 1853, a son of John and Mary Shields, natives of Pennsylvania. His mother died in her native State 'in 1858, and his father married Eliza- beth McWilliams, who died May 16, 1902, in Monmouth. John Shields, who was a black- smith, came to Monmouth in 1864 and worked at his trade there until 1896, when he died. Captain Shields' sister, Mary B., lives at New Wilmington, Penn .; his half-brother, George Edward, lives at Dixon, Ill .; his half-sisters, Nellie and Minnie, at Monmouth. He was brought to Monmouth when he was eleven years old and completed his schooling there and mastered the blacksmith's trade under his father's instruction. He has conducted busi- ness sucessfully for himself since 1875. April 5, 1893, he was elected captain of Company H, Sixth Regiment Illinois National Guard. The company was organized at Monmouth, April 28, 1881, with fifty-three men, and was then known as Company C, Fourth Regiment Ill- inois State Militia. It has been known by its present designation since 1882. Its first cap- tain was W. G. Bond, who was succeeded by Col. George C. Rankin, he by Col. D. E. Clarke, who in 1893 gave place to Captain Shields. After the beginning of the Spanish- American war, the company went to Spring- field, under National Guard organization, forty-
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
six men strong, but received recruits and, when mustered into the United States service, May 11, 1898, included one hundred and thirteen men. The regiment was sent to Camp Alger, Va., thence to Charleston, S. C., thence by transport to Sibony, where for some time it remained on board transports. From there it was sent to Porto Rico, landing July 25, 1898. It participated in the Porto Rico campaign, in which it marched more miles than any other
regiment. Company H lost two men from typhoid fever, one of whom died at Springfield, the other at his home. The company was mus- tered out November 25, 1898, at Springfield, Ill., and about a score of its members went to the Philippines, where they fared well, only one of them being wounded. Company H, was on duty fifteen days during the strike at East St. Louis, and, in 1894, served twenty-one days at Chicago during the labor troubles there. It has had only four captains in twenty-one years, and Captain Shields has been in command longer than either of his predecessors.
SIPHER, JOHN WESLEY .- The family of Sipher is an old one in the State of New York and is represented in nearly every section of the United States. In successive generations it has produced men who have been leaders in public enlightenment and material develop- ment, and who have made their mark where- ever their lots have been cast. A conspicuous representative of this family in Warren County, Ill., is John Wesley Sipher, of Mon- mouth, President of the Monmouth Brick Company, of the Monmouth Hospital and of the Monmouth Country Club and Vice-President of the Monmouth Business Men's Association. John Wesley Sipher was born at Utica, N. Y., July 1, 1844, a son of Moses and Eva (Baldee) Sipher. His father was a native of Manheim, N. Y., his mother of Herkimer, in the same State. Jacob Sipher, his grandfather in the paternal line, was born at Manheim, and mar- ried Katharine Windecker, who was also a native of the same place. His grandfather in the maternal line was Henry Baldee, who was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, and married Margaret Rasbach, of Kerkimer, N. Y. Mr. Sipher was educated at his native place and married Caroline Wood at Sempronius, N. Y., February 13, 1867, and has two daugh- ters, Mrs. Eva (Sipher) Diffenbaugh and Mrs. Carrie (Sipher) Meeker. In 1869, he came 861 -12
with his wife and their six months old baby to Monmouth, Warren County, Ill., where they arrived April 25. Soon afterward he began dealing in lumber and coal on the site of the plant of the present Sipher Lumber and Coal Company, now No. 617 South Second Street. He added the ice business to his original enter- prise in 1875. He was elected Alderman for the Fifth Ward of Monmouth in 1873, and Alderman of the First Ward in 1875. He has for many years been a member. of the Library Board and has been called to other responsible positions, including those mentioned at the beginning of this article. Mr. Sipher is a man of much public spirit, votes with the Republican party and is liberal in his re- ligious views.
SMITH, HARRISON B., Banker and Cashier People's National Bank, Monmouth, Ill., was born in the city of Monmouth, January 17, 1864, the son of William F. and Margaret (Bell) Smith. Both his parents were natives of the State of Virginia, as were his grand- parents on both the paternal and maternal side. His father's parents were Barnett and Mary Smith, while those of his mother were L. G. and Margaret Bell. Mr. Smith was edu- cated in the schools of his native city, and, in October, 1890, he was united in marriage, in the city of Monmouth, to Charlotte Shultz, who died June 10, 1897, leaving one son, Harold G. On October 22, 1902, Mr. Smith was mar- ried to his second wife, who was Miss Vie Harding of Monmouth. In political views Mr. Smith is a Republican and in° occupation a banker, being at the present time one of the Directors and the Cashier of the People's Na- tional Bank, Monmouth. His reputation for probity and business intelligence in the com- munity where he has spent his life, is indicated by the position which he now holds in one of the leading financial institutions of his na- tive city.
SMITH, WILLIAM FRANCIS (deceased), Monmouth, Warren County; was born at Cass Bride Farm, Louisa County, Va., February 22, 1815, a son of Barnett Smith, Jr., and Mary Field (Grayson) Smith. In 1820 the family removed to Glasgow, Kentucky. In the fall of 1835, Mr. Wm. F. Smith came to Monmouth, Ill., where he remained until his death, September 2, 1892. Mr. Smith began his business career
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in Monmouth by establishing a general mier- chandise business on the northeast corner of the square. This enterprise was subsequently combined with a drug store. In 1843 he erected a store on the southwest corner of the square, where he continued in business until 1875, when he retired from active life. In 1863 he took his oldest son, Edwin R. Smith, into partnership, the firm being known as William F. Smith & Son. Edwin R. Smith died in 1868, and in 1869 William B. Smith, his second son, and John C. Dunbar were admitted into
the partnership. Mr. Smith was identified with various other interests in Monmouth. He was one of the organizers of the People's Na- tional Bank in 1890, and its Vice-President. The building occupied by the bank was erected by him. Though frequently besought to be- come a candidate for public office, the only one of importance he ever filled was that of Probate Judge of Warren County. He was married April 12, 1838, to Margaret Bell, who died No- vember 24, 1899, and their children were: Ed- win R., Mary F., Inez B., Wm. B., Margaret E., L. Graham, Caroline K., Elizabeth A. and H. B.
SPICER, ALEXANDER W., retired farmer and stockraiser, Monmouth, Warren County, Ill., is one of the largest land owners in the county, and a man whose success in life has been won by methods which have commended him to the good opinion of all with whom he has had business relations. He was born in Ohio, March 14, 1822, a son of Thomas, and a grand- son of John Spicer. The latter, an English- man settled in New Jersey, where he married. He served his adopted country as a soldier in the War of 1812 and later settled in Ohio, where he died leaving four sons. His son Thomas, father of the subject of this sketch, died in 1823, when Alexander W. Spicer was little more than a year old. The boy attended district schools and grew up as a hired laborer on a farm and, February 14, 1847, married Flora Elliott, a daughter of William Elliott, a native of Penn. In 1856 Mr. Spicer came to Monmouth and was so favorably impressed by the advantages offered by the then new coun- try in the vicinity of that village, that, in 1857, he settled with his family on a farm west of the town, where he remained two years. He then removed to Mercer County, where for twenty years he was engaged quite extensively in farming and breeding stock. Here he pros-
pered so well that, when he returned to Mon- mouth Township in 1881, he was the owner of 3,500 acres of land. From that time until 1890 be lived one mile north of Monmouth, but, at the date last mentioned, moved into Mon- mouth, where in 1891, he erected a fine resi- dence at Boston Avenue and A Street, which has continued to be his home in his years of retirement from active life. To Alexander W. and Flora (Elliott) Spicer have been born children as follows: William, born March 8, 1846, is in business at Portland, Oregon; Thomas W., born December 20, 1849, is a farmer in Warren County; Rebecca C., born November 15, 1853; James Wiley, born Sep- tember 28, 1857, died June 7, 1874; John R., born February 1, 1858, now lives in Nebraska; Isabelle, born August 22, 1855, and married W. S. Johnson, of Mercer County; Martha J., born May 3, 1863; Oliver A., born September 23, 1865, lives in Monmouth Township; Frank S., born January 18, 1868, died August 31, 1892. Rebecca C. and Martha J. died in infancy. Mr. Spicer is a Republican in politics and a mem- ber of the First United Presbyterian Church of Monmouth.
STEDMAN, NELSON; house and sign-paint- er; Monmouth; has prospered in his home city where he owns a good residence and three houses which he rents. He was born in Syra- cuse, N. Y., October 18, 1832, a son of Wells and Louisa (Nott) Stedman, natives respect- ively of New York and Vermont. When Mr. Stedman was about one year old his father died and his mother having become Mrs. Parker, emigrated to Ohio and thence, in 1856, to Monmouth, Ill. Eventually she went to Grand Island, Neb., where she died in 1888. Nelson Stedman, Mrs. Parker's only surviving child by her first marriage, was educated in Ohio and in the public schools of Ypsilanti, Mich., subsequently learned the trade of house and sign-painter, at which he was employed in Ohio and later at Monmouth until 1884, when he went to Grand Island, Neb., where he farmed until 1900. He spent one year in Custer County, Neb., where he pre-empted government land. Returning to Monmouth (to which place he had first come from Akron, Ohio, in 1856) he was employed at the Weir Plow Works twelve years, foreman in the paintshop of the Pattee Plow Works four years, and afterwards engaged in general painting. He is a Republi-
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
can and voted for Fremont for President in 1856. He has been a member of the City Coun- cil and was influential in that body when the city was paved and other important improve- ments were made. He has passed the chairs in Warren Lodge, No. 160, Independent Order of Odd Fellows and has been received into the en- campment. Mary E. Parker was married to Mr. Stedman at Akron, Ohio. She was born at Medina, Ohio, a daughter of Lemuel C. and Susan (Perry) Parker, and her father died at Akron, where her mother died in December, 1901, aged ninety years. Mr. and Mrs. Sted- man have had four children: Mary L., who married Colin Roadhouse of Monmouth; Su- san E., who is Cashier in the United States Clothing House at Monmouth; Edward P., who married and in 1894 died at Monmouth, and one other who died in infancy.
STEVENSON, WILLIAM H .; retired far- mer; Monmouth; an influential and highly re- spected citizen, an active member of the United Presbyterian church and Senior Vice- Commander of McClanahan Post, No. 330 Grand Army of the Republic. He was born in Brown County, Ohio, October 11, 1843, a son of William and Nancy (Pettinger) Steven- son. His father, a native of Pennsylvania, was an early settler and farmer in Brown County, where he died in 1867. His mother, who died in Hale Township, Warren County, in 1892, bore her husband children as follows: Sarah, John, Elizabeth, Mary J., of Omaha, Neb., Esther, Nancy, Calvin of Hale Township, Hannah and William H. Sarah, John, Eliza- beth, Esther, Nancy and Hannah are dead. William H. Stevenson passed his childhood and youth and secured a common school edu- cation in Brown County, Ohio, and, in 1862, located in Woodford County, Ill. August 22 of that year he enlisted in Company C, Seventy- seventh Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which was included in the Army of the Miss- issippi, and participated in the battles of Chickasaw Bluff, Arkansas Post, Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Black Bayou, Jackson, Mans- field, Cane River, Fort Gaines and Spanish Fort and in the siege of Vicksburg. He was honorably discharged from the service, July 10, 1865, and returned to Ohio. In 1869 he settled in Hale township, Warren County, where, in 1870, he bought a farm which he cultivated until October, 1899, when he came to
Monmouth, where he has since lived. He mar- ried, in Hale Township, in 1880, Sarah Mc- Connell, a daughter of John McConnell, who was a pioneer there. Mrs. Stevenson has borne her husband a son, William J. Stevenson.
STICE, OSCAR; proprietor of a general teaming business, Monmouth, was a soldier of the Civil war and is an influential Grand Army man and Republican. He was formerly a farmer, and as such was successful at a time when success in that vocation was harder to achieve than with the scientific and mechani- cal aids now in vogue. He was born in Honey Creek, Warren County, in 1842, a son of An- drew J. and Ruby L. (Bond) Stice, the one of Kentucky and the other of North Carolina. Mr. Stice came to Warren County in 1831 and mar- ried there. He died in 1848, and his widow married A. J. Cayton, of Roseville, and died in 1901. Andrew J. and Ruby L. (Bond) Stice had two children: Oscar Stice, the subject of this sketch, and Lissa, who married J. H. But- ters, of Knoxville, Tenn. Oscar Stice was rear- ed and educated in Warren County, and began to be of some account at farm labor when the civil war opened. August 17, 1861, when he was about nineteen years old, he enlisted at Burlington, Iowa, in the First Iowa Light Ar- tillery, which, in the Army of the West, parti- cipated in the battles of Pea Ridge, Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, Port Gibson, Tuscum- bia, Lookout Mountain, Tunnel Hill and Rocky Face, in the siege of Vicksburg and in Sher- man's operations until the fall of Atlanta. Mr. Stice was honorably discharged from the army service August 6, 1864, and mustered out two days later. He received a gun-shot wound in battle and is an honored member of George Crook Post, No. 81, Department of Illinois, Grand Army of the Republic. He married in Warren County, in 1875, Rebecca E. Fairburn, who was born in West Virginia, a daughter of James A. and Elizabeth (Tole) Fairburn, who settled in this County in 1865. Mrs. Stice has borne her husband one child, Chester D., born February 2, 1878.
STRICKLER, SAMUEL A .; contractor and builder, Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois; has lived in that city half a century and is hon- ored as a veteran of the War of 1861-65, and as an upright and enterprising citizen who has made a worthy success in life. He was born in
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Cumberland County, Penn., July 4, 1844, a son of Samuel L. and Belle Ann (Frazier) Strick- ler, natives of that State. His mother died in Pennsylvania, and his father married Maria Horner. He was a carpenter and contractor and in 1852 he brought his family to Mon- mouth, where he died about 1889, and where his living. By
widow is his first marriage he had children named William, who died in Monmouth; Samuel A .; and Lavenia Ann; and by his second marriage he had children named Mary, Jennie, Elizabeth, Henry, Landis and Laura. Samuel A. Strickler was reared and educated and gained a practical knowledge of his trade at Monmouth. In 1863, he enlisted there, in Company L, Twelfth Regiment Illi- nois Volunteer Cavalry, which was mustered into the service at Springfield, Illinois, and was included in the Army of the Potomac. Mr. Strickler did garrison duty and acted as a scout in Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas, and was honorably discharged from the service at Houston, Texas, in 1865. Returning to Mon- mouth he was for about sixteen years engaged in contracting and building. He resumed business in 1896, after several years' retirement and is meeting with much success. He is a Re- publican and a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church. He married at Monmouth, in 1868, Mary E. Hendricks, who was born in Knox County, Ill., a daughter of John B. Hendricks, a veteran of the civil war, who came early to Knox County, and died at the Soldiers' Home at Quincy, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Strickler have children named William, Carry, Frank, Nellie, Samuel and John.
SUTHERLAND, JOHN D .; manufacturer of and dealer in granite monuments, Monmouth; is a progressive, up-to-date citizen, who is a leader in his special industry, and a member of the Presbyterian Church, taking a deep and abiding interest in all questions affecting the progress and prosperity of his city and county. He was born in Lee County, Iowa, in 1851, a son of Daniel and Margaret Ann (Beard) Sutherland. His father, a native of Pennsyl- vania, emigrated to Peoria County, Ill., in 1841, and removed to DesMoines County, Iowa, in 1849. He was a successful teacher in Pennsyl- vania, Virginia, Illinois and Iowa, was married in the last mentioned State and died in Mon- mouth, July 7, 1902. His good wife still sur- vives him and resides in Monmouth. John D.
Sutherland was reared and educated in Davis County, Iowa, learned his trade at Kirksville, Mo., and, after working as a marble-worker at Burlington, Iowa, three years, he came to Mon- mouth in 1889, as an employee of John Moard, of Burlington, a marble manufacturer and dealer, who had established a branch here. In 1890, in partnership with W. H. Lord, Mr. Suth- erland bought Mr. Moard's business in Mon- mouth and established an independent enter- prise, of which he became sole proprietor in 1892. His business, which is quite large, is constantly growing.
SYKES, MARY E .- The public schools of Warren County, Illinois, are under the able supervision of Mrs. Mary E. Sykes, of Mon- mouth, who was elected County Superintend- ent of Schools of Warren County in 1894, was re-elected in 1898, and is a candidate for re-elec- tion in 1902. Mrs. Mary E. Sykes was born at Rozetta, Henderson County, Illinois, and is a daughter of Mathew and Jane (Stevenson) Mitchell. Miss Mitchell married Loren R. Sykes at Rozetta, Henderson County, Ill., Octo- ber 22, 1874, and they have three daughters named Mabel A., Edith M. and Lora M. Sykes. The family are communicants of the Presby- terian Church, and Mrs. Sykes advocates the principles of the Republican party. Mrs. Sykes' girlhood was spent in Henderson County. In 1874 she went to Knox County, whence, in 1882, she removed to Warren County, locating at Monmouth, where she has since lived. She took up her career as teacher in the Central School building at Monmouth in 1886, and taught there continuously for eight years until 1894, when she assumed the duties of County Superintendent, which she has since performed with such marked ability that she is regarded as one of the most efficient County Superin- tendents in Illinois.
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